Pleasantville Middle School Science Olympiad Team, from Best "Newbie" to Second Place in Three Short Years

From the Pleasantville schools

Pleasantville Middle School Science Olympiad team members stayed true to their motto – Keep calm and geek on! – for the March 7 Regional Competition held at Scarsdale Middle School.

The team placed a close second to Scarsdale in a 29-team field and qualified for the NY State Competition for the second year in a row. In its three-year existence, the team won the “Best New Team” prize in year one; finished fourth at the Regional Competition and qualified for the NYS Competition in year two, where the team earned the Best Performance for a Small School trophy; and finished second in the Regional Competiton and again qualified for the NYS Competition in year three.

Pleasantville Middle School fielded two teams that competed in 21 events covering a wide range of science and engineering fields. In addition to the team trophy for second place, all team members scored in the top 10 for at least one of the individual events they entered. The top six in each individual event were awarded medals. Overall, PMS team members earned 6 first, 4 second, 2 third, 3 fourth, and 1 sixth place (including both 4th and 6th place in the same event, Air Trajectory):

• 1st Place: Entomology - Andrei Captan; Green Generation - Akimoto Cornelius & Chloe Peters; Invasive Species - Chloe Peters & Jonathan Hayes; Meteorology - Anu Subramanya & Kayley Lewis; Road Scholar - Abhaya Ravikumar & Maya Sauthoff; Robo-Cross - Anu Subramanya & Ian Cotter
• 2nd Place: Air Trajectory: Nicholas Vines & Leif Martens-Wallace; Dynamic Planet - Nevan Lewis & Aidan Lynch; Elastic Glider - Katerina Gusarova & Lucas Lee; Fossils - Julia Goodman
• 3rd Place: Bridge - Maya Sauthoff & Abhaya Ravikumar; Experimental Design - Maya Sauthoff, Abhaya Ravikumar, and Ella Furniss
• 4th Place: Air Trajectory - Ella Furniss & Andrei Captan; Wheeled Vehicle - Anisha Chandy & Iman Behbehani; Anatomy: Anisha Chandy & Iman Behbehani
• 6th Place: Crave the Wave - Ella Furniss & Riik Acharya

Science Olympiad is offered as an extracurricular activity by Extended Learning Coordinator Melissa Brown and run by science teacher Janine Fugarino and community volunteers Drs. Chuck and Martha Matteo with the help of additional STEM-savvy volunteer coaches Libby Brennesholtz, Dipak Chandy, Noel Furniss, Michael Inglis, Jim Lewis, PhD, Nancy Maika, Helen Meurer, Ravi Ramachandran, Ravi Subramanya, Usha Subramanya, PhD, and Allen Wallace.

The Middle School PTA has defrayed most of the costs of the program, such as coach training expenses, and is currently raising funds for the team’s travel expenses to the NYS Competition in Syracuse.